The Complete Innovator

 

Innovation Metrics - Part 3

Continuing the thoughts on metrics.. 

3) The Three F’s – When beginning to consider innovation metrics – there are three main “F”’s that you need to measure – Form, Flow, and Function. 

    a. Form – Form is your ability to perform each part of the innovation process.

    b. Flow – Flow is your efficiency at both passing stuff through the individual elements of the process as well as the overall process itself.

    c. Function – Function looks at the program as a whole and its ability to achieve organizational goals, and the organization’s innovation capacity as a whole.

Taking the innovation process you’ve developed in section 2 (see last week’s post) above, you then go through the process figuring out what metrics are most appropriate taking into account the 3 F’s.  For most companies, the metrics will be broadly split into two sections – the form and flow of the pipeline itself – and the function of the program as a whole:

Innovation Metrics Worksheet - Form and Flow

Some good examples of Form and Flow metrics: 

1) Problem Identification and Definition stage: 

• Number of Problems submitted for consideration (form)
• Number of individual event sponsors recruited (form) 
• Number of Event Charters defined (form)
• Number of Events accepted and set up  (flow)
• Number of Events in each of the key corporate strategic areas (flow) 

2) Idea Collection, Building and Management 

• Number of ideas/builds collected (form)
• Number of Event Visitors / Contributors (form) 
• Number of Idea/Build  Authors (form)
• Number of ideas reviewed and concluded (flow)
• Number of Ideas passed through to concept development (flow)

3) Concept/Opportunity Development

• Number of Prototypes developed (form) 
• Number of ideas going into Project Management (flow)
• Potential value of ideas going to Project Management (flow) 
• Average time idea spends in Concept Development (flow)

4) Project Management

• Average time to project completion (form) 
• Number of projects completed versus target (function)
• Number of projects currently in the pipeline versus target (function)
• Effective capacity versus capability (function)

5) Initial Launch

• Target sales/cost reduction/process improvement versus actual (form)
• Customer satisfaction (form)
• Customer uptake versus local competitor/alternative (form)
• Number of Launches proceeding to Expanded Launch (function)
• Number of Launches failed (function)

6) Revise, Expand, and Re-Launch

•  Contribution to profit margin from innovations

And for Innovation Function: 

Innovation Metrics Worksheet - Function